


Cauterize

by Faerie (Exoneratiebeding)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Blood and Injury, M/M, Multi, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25293136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exoneratiebeding/pseuds/Faerie
Summary: Danger lurked in the shadows of Ba Sign Se and it had cost Zuko dearly. He now needed blood to sustain and was contained to a life of night time. He had become a being of contradiction; a firebender afraid of fire.Sokka knew there was something off about the firebender and he was determined to find out what.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 47





	1. Prologue

There were rumors amongst the refugees in Ba Sign Se. Small whispers amongst the poor and desolate. Most of these rumors sounded outlandish, best ignored, yet they seemed to strike real fear into the hearts of the impoverished citizens. Rumors of a great evil lurking in the shadows, striking at those who would not be missed. An evil greater than the fire nation soldiers that had driven the refugees to the city in the first place. 

Zuko could vividly remember the first time he had heard the rumors. Uncle and him had just started working at the teashop, when one of their patrons had lurked behind after closing. She had grabbed his uncle by his elbow, and looked at him with dread in her eyes. 

‘You and your nephew seem to be decent sort..’ She had told them, not in an unkind voice. She had looked around carefully, trying to spot if anyone was listening in on them. ‘There is danger lurking here, monsters concealed in shadow.’ The firebenders would have thought her insane, but there was real urgency in her voice. ‘Be careful. Never be alone at night. They don’t care about folks like us.’ She whispered, before she went off.

Zuko and his uncle had been too stunned to reply. They had shared a baffled look, before carefully making their homes in the slums. ‘What was she talking about?’ Zuko questioned, keeping his voice low. His uncle had frowned, being uncharacteristically silent. 

It wouldn’t have been the last time Zuko would hear about the rumours. Murmurs Zuko caught between patrons when he was serving them. People making low conversations in the slums. 

It wasn’t odd for people to disappear in Ba Sign Se. Zuko did not even bother remembering his neighbours, as there was a good chance they’d be replaced the next day. The Dai Li were careful to remove any agent possibly causing dissent. They kept their guards up, their heads hung low. Everything to keep Dai Li attention off of them. Yet somehow Zuko knew the rumours the refugees were spreading were not about the Dai Li. Their fear was a different kind. The other evil, if it even existed, was even more secret than the secret agents. 

Though they had never talked about it, Zuko and uncle kept the warning close to heart. They made sure to depart work together and always kept an eye out for the intangible danger. Between staying hidden from the fire nation and the Dai Li agents, this invisible danger did not change much. It was just another reason to keep their heads down. 

Things changed when they had moved quarters. When uncle was able to set up his own teashop. The people were different in this quadrant. Their faces not as gaunt, the streets not filled with the rotting smell of decay. It was as if the sun shined brighter, as if the colour in the district was fuller. The shadows were shorter. Despite himself, even Zuko felt more full of live. 

There were no whispers amongst these people. They seemed to live their lives in bliss, unaware of the war or the circumstances of the refugees in the slums. Perhaps they simply did not care, when the worries of day to day life were much more tangible to them. Within these new walls, it had been so easy to forget about the hushed warning the woman had given them, especially with the news that the avatar was residing in the city. 

Zuko had set out to find the boy, without telling his uncle. He stalked the streets, going straight for the compound in Lake Laogai. Wearing the blue mask, he always felt as though he were someone different. Someone who could blend with the shadows, be as swift as the wind. 

He was utterly focused on his goal. He kept out of sight as he entered the slums, the streets eerily empty at night in this area. The silence here felt unnatural, when Zuko knew first hand how packed the streets were during the day. The only thing he could hear was the sound of his own footsteps, hitting the ground. One thought kept going through his mind. Every fiber of his being focused towards that one word, that one cursed word. Avatar. It did not matter that much time had passed since he last hunted the bender, the motions were familiar. The hope that shined a light in the dark. His absolution. 

Perhaps it had been because of that single minded determination that he had noticed a presence appearing at his side. The bloodlust of a true predator who had sighted some excellent prey. He did not notice he was being followed. It happened just before he had entered the compound. He had paused to take the lake in, where the avatar would be. From the shadows, Zuko saw the hands coming. It was in that moment, he could finally sense the bloodlust. All the hairs on his body stood up in primal fear, and at that moment, he knew there was something truly wrong. He had been too late to react. 

The fear had paralyzed him for a moment, that one moment was all that was needed. The hands had grabbed him from behind, Zuko struggling with all his might as soon as his body would let him. First, the hands had forced his swords to the ground. Next, the hands took him into an all powerful embrace. Whatever was holding him was much stronger, however. Zuko screamed, rage and fear bubbling in his chest. It was in vain, as his voice died down in the silence. None of the refugees would risk coming outside, Zuko realised. One of the hands quickly covered his mouth. Zuko was panicking now, but he could not free himself from the embrace. 

His assailant forced him up against a whole, forcing the air out of his lungs with a dull thud. Zuko quickly took in the shadowy figure. It looked like a man, though his skin looked sickly. His eyes almost seemed to glow in the night, like fireflies. The man flashed a grin, revealing teeth like a beast. He descended on Zuko’s neck, his eyes hungry with something. Something in Zuko knew this was not a human. 

He sank the beastly teeth into the neck of the teenage boy. Zuko felt a haze grow over him, and he struggled to keep his awareness. It felt as though his blood was being sucked out of his body as he become more and more light-headed. He tried to bend, their secret identity be damned, but he could not bring his hands to move. He felt as though he would faint. 

With all of the determination left in his body, Zuko managed to shoot out fire. This seemed to startle the creature. He shot away from Zuko, blind panic in his eyes for the first time since Zuko had encountered it. His teeth were glistening with the red of Zuko’s blood. He stared at the hands of the firebender. Zuko, although still feeling very light-headed, finally felt the haze leave his mind. He shot out fire again, aiming it towards the creature. The creature screamed at the sight of the sudden fire, and ran off. 

He slumped back against the wall and pressed a hand against his neck. He could still feel the blood trying to pulse out of his neck. He felt his heart beating wildly in his throat. The man had left nothing more than a bite mark, two little pricks against his neck. Zuko knew, however, that he should not lose anymore blood, lest he.. Gingerly, he pressed two of his fingertips against the the wound. He heated up his fingers, a quick flash of fire against his skin. He beared the pain in grim determination. 

His mind was reeling. What had just happened. He struggled to get up, pressing his weight against the cool stone wall. He felt as though he was burning up, yet his skin was cold but sweaty to the touch. He saw lake laogai in the distance, his mind returning to the avatar. Right. He had to capture the avatar. That was why he had been out in the first place. 

The monster.. that had been out of his control. But the avatar. That was tangible, that was real. Stumbling, Zuko made his way over to the lake, all of his previous grace having left him. Yet he soldiered through, determined to catch the one thing that would cause it all to make sense again. 

It had taken longer than it should to find the bison. If he had the bison, the avatar would come to him. He clenched his swords, feeling the end of his journey approach. He could finally go home. But then he also remembered how useless these very same swords had been, how easily he had been overpowered. Despite himself, he trembled. He bit his lip. He desperately wanted to scream, to force the humiliation out of his body. 

It was not the avatar who entered the chamber, however. His uncle was pleading with him. Pleading him to let go of his destiny. All at once, Zuko felt as though everything he had been working towards had been pointless. The home he had been searching for some sort of mirage. It was at this moment he fell to the ground, his vision becoming black.


	2. Thirst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for this chapter: Mention of puking, violence.

After Zuko had collapsed, Iroh had carried the boy back to their quarters in the inner circle. He had gone as quickly as he could, carrying the boy on his back through the shadows. Zuko faded in and out of consciousness for several days and nights. His uncle stayed vigilantly by his side, his featured marred with concern. Fever had overtaken Zuko, but his illness was unlike anything Iroh had ever seen.

At first Iroh had suspected that his nephew was in inner conflict, caused by ultimately not going after the young avatar. As the night broke and made for the day, however, Iroh started to notice something odd about his nephew. When the sunlight started to filter in at dawn, Zuko started to moan in agony. Where the sun touched his skin, the skin almost seemed to sizzle. Iroh closed the blinds with a frown, and watched his nephew quiet down again.

It almost seemed like it had been a trick of the light, as Zuko’s skin had returned to normal. Iroh dabbed the sweat of his nephew’s brow, noting how cold the skin felt to his touch. A firebender recoiling from the sun? Iroh had truly never seen anything like this.

He stayed by Zuko’s side for an entire day. Once it became night again, Zuko stumbled into lucidness for the first time since he had collapsed. The boy reached for the pot of water at his side, and emptied his stomach in it, after which he fell unconscious again. Zuko had not even noticed his uncle at his side.

Occasionally Zuko would whimper, seemingly having trouble heaving his chest. Periodically he would wake up, not say anything to Iroh, and empty his stomach before falling asleep again. Iroh wondered how anything could still be left in his nephew’s stomach. Zuko’s skin became seemingly paler, as if it was losing the touch of life.

Then dawn rose once more. The smell coming from the pot had become unbearable, and Iroh decided to empty it. He threw to contents to the street and had to compose himself when he saw what exactly were the contents. It seemed as though his nephew had eaten another human being, several organs in various stages of decay. He was no strangers to the insides of a man, having once been a man belonging to warfare. Yet the sight even twisted something inside of him.

He went back inside to check on his nephew. It was then he noticed Zuko had started to look.. unnatural. It wasn’t like unnatural like the spirits, Iroh would even go as far as to say Zuko looked.. removed from the spiritual world. Zuko seemed to be having a bad dream, crying out for something, grasping the sheets. There was nothing Iroh could do but wipe the sweat of his nephew.

That evening was the first time Zuko awoke longer than to empty out his stomach. He stared at his uncle as though he was not really seeing the man. It almost seemed as though his nephew was not blinking, as if he had forgotten how to do so.

‘Uncle..?’ The boy tried, as though the feeling of his tongue in his mouth was foreign.

‘Nephew.’ Iroh replied, with some relief. Zuko tried to sit up right, and Iroh took him into an embrace.

‘I am.. thirsty.’ Zuko’s voice was small. He did not hug his uncle back, seemingly not having the strength to do so. Iroh quickly laid Zuko back down onto the sheets, carefully bringing up a cup to the boy’s lips. Zuko shook his head as the water met his mouth, spitting out what made it inside. ‘No.’ He said, between sips. ‘No.’ He kept crying.

‘You have to drink something, nephew.’ Iroh placed the cup back down, watching how Zuko returned to unconsciousness. Iroh stayed by the boy for another night and day, until night came again. For the first time, the boy was silent. _Too_ silent, Iroh noted. The boy was not breathing, Iroh noted.

‘Zuko!’ He cried out, placing his ear to his nephew’s heart. With some shock, Iroh realized it was beating. Yet the boy was perfectly still. His chest was not heaving. Iroh checked again, Zuko’s heart beat sounding as steady as ever.

He shook the boy, and cried out Zuko’s name. His r _eal_ name. Dai Li agents be damned. He felt arms embrace him, Iroh looked up to find his nephew staring at him.

‘Uncle, what is wrong?’ The boy asked, the question seemingly taking up quite some strength, as his arms drooped back down again.

‘Nephew..’ Iroh noted that Zuko’s hair seemed.. longer, as he took the boy in. ‘You weren’t breathing.’ He answered.

Zuko frowned. Iroh noticed that the boy still wasn’t breathing, or blinking, for that matter. Zuko gingerly sat up, and touched his chest. His frowned deepened. Finally, he answered. ‘I.. don’t feel a need to.’ He directly looked at Iroh.

Iroh was stunned into silence.

‘I was.. attacked.’ Zuko looked away. ‘Before I got to the compound. There was a.. man. It tried to drain the blood from my body. I.. scared him off before he could finish.’ Zuko’s mind seemed to be far away, Iroh noted how calm his nephew seemed. Iroh remembered the awful rumours spread by the refugees, how he had failed to pay significant attention to them. He would have to make some inquiries with some old friends.

‘I.. feel thirsty.’ Zuko said once more, but shook his head when his uncle offered him water. His nephew looked around; his pupils dilated. ‘Everything is so noisy.’ The boy covered his ears with his hands, as though the sounds of the streets were too much for him to bear.

Suddenly, the boy stood up, and made his way out of their quarters. Iroh stood up to follow the boy, but Zuko was too fast. unnaturally fast. He had lost track of his nephew.

x

There was a drumming in Zuko’s ears he could not place, as he stumbled into the streets of Ba Sing Se. His teeth ached for something Zuko did not understand. The sounds of the city were sharp in his ears. The smells were fouler. The lights too bright. He stalked the streets, looking for.. something. He felt so thirsty, so hungry. His stomach was screaming in agony, his body thrumming with need.

He noticed a man walking alone, heading into an alleyway. His teeth ached just that much more, and Zuko felt compelled to follow the man. His eyes zoned in on the skin of the man’s neck, uncovered, glistening with sweat. He kept his distance from the man, as he silently followed. It seemed so compelling to just.. sink in.

He noticed the hairs on the man’s neck standing up, as if the man had noticed him. Zuko shot towards the man before he could understand what he was doing. He sank his teeth into the man’s neck. His teeth seemed to elongate, and he felt the skin break.

His mouth was filled with blood, and he carefully gulped it down. His body thrummed in pleasure, as his stomach was filled up. The man had struggled at first, but now had gone limp. Zuko was too far gone to notice it. He kept drinking, the blood singing its siren call. Zuko had never felt so powerful, so whole.

Someone ripped him off of the man, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. The man crumbled down to the ground, breathing shallowly. Zuko stared up to look at the new man. The man had dark skin, piercing blue eyes, and seemed to be glaring heavily at Zuko.

‘Spirits! What do you think you’re doing, boy?’ The man asked, as he grabbed Zuko by his arm, and stalked them away. The man carefully looked around to see if anyone had seen them, but the alley was completely deserted. Zuko tried to struggle against the man, but his grip was like iron.

‘You could have killed that man.’ The man grumbled, as he marched them in the shadows. Zuko realized the mysterious man was right. He felt dread settle in the pit of his stomach, Agni, what had he been doing? What had gotten into him?

The man dragged them into a house, and sat Zuko down on a chair. ‘You’re covered in blood.’ The man threw him a rag, and instructed for Zuko to clean himself up. He felt the blood drip from his chin, onto his dirty clothes. Clothes uncle must have put on for him. He hadn’t been wearing this when he had been attacked. Numbly, Zuko listened to the man.

‘Where is your creator, boy?’ The man asked, once Zuko had cleaned himself up. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. Zuko noticed the man hadn’t blinked yet.

‘Creator? My parents, you mean?’ Zuko frowned.

‘Who turned you into one of our kind?’ The man asked instead.

‘Our kind...? I-’ Zuko caught onto what the man meant, everything clicking into place. When the man had attacked him, something had happened to him. ‘I- I was attacked a few nights ago.’ He did not know what compelled him to be so open to the stranger. It was as if the eyes of the man told him he could be trusted, that everything would be fine. ‘I scared him off before he could finish.’

‘How did you manage to do that?’ Something in Zuko wanted to answer truthfully, but he managed to keep his mouth shot. Who knows what the man would do when he found out Zuko was a firebender?

The man scoffed, but didn’t pressure him. ‘He must’ve released the venom in reaction..’ The man muttered to himself, stroking his chin. He looked down at Zuko, his expression calculating.

‘Hate to break it to you kid, but you’re no longer human.’ Zuko felt his heart drop. Some part of him had already understood the truth of those words, yet he could not help but feel heart broken. ‘I can’t leave you unsupervised. You’re a liability to us, untrained.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Zuko thought of his uncle, whom he had left alone in their quarters. Was his uncle out, looking for him? The man must be out of his mind with worry. What if he had seen what Zuko had done to the poor man?

‘They can’t find out we exist. If you keep going about like you did tonight, the Dai Li will know about us in a matter of nights.’ The man walked up to Zuko, and grabbed his chin, carefully examining the boy. ‘Spirits, you’re young.’ The man sounded wistful. ‘What I’m saying, kid, you either come with me, or I’m afraid I will have to end your life.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vampires, at least in the sense I'm using it, isn't really a concept native to Asia. I feel uncomfortable out-right using the word vampire in this story, but I don't feel Jiangshi is really an accurate term either. Nonetheless, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Seeing the kudos and comments brings a smile to my face.


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